Recollections of Childhood Discrimination, Cisheterosexism, and Mental Health in LGBTQ+ Adults: A Systems Approach to Examining Resilience

Objectives LGBTQ+ individuals encounter challenges associated with their sexual and gender identities that can negatively impact mental health. While resilience may buffer adverse effects, the relationship between harmful experiences and resilience development requires further investigation.Methods This study examined resilience patterns across 16 factors spanning three social-ecological systems and their associations with recollection of childhood LGBTQ+ related discrimination, recent cisheterosexist experiences, and mental health outcomes. Participants were 254 LGBTQ+ adults aged 18 to 66 years (M/SD = 35.23/8.96) in the United States. The most frequently endorsed sexual and gender identities were bisexuality (56.3%) and cisgender men (39.5%).Results Four latent classes emerged: high resilience factors (n = 52), high social support (n = 68), religious and community connection (n = 45), and limited resilience factors (n = 89). Recalled childhood discrimination did not differ across classes. The high resilience factors and high social support classes reported significantly lower cisheterosexist experiences than the religious and community connection and limited resilience factors classes. Contrary to expectations, latent classes that endorsed the greatest resilience factors reported greater mental health problems. The high resilience factors class reported greater levels of depressive symptoms than the limited resilience factors class; meanwhile, the high social support class reported greater alcohol use, depressive symptoms, and suicidal behavior than the religious and community connection and limited resilience factors classes.Conclusions Findings highlight the need to identify mechanisms underlying resilience formation across social-ecological levels, including structural protective factors in LGBTQ+ adults with identity-related discrimination experiences across the life course. Longitudinal research is needed to clarify temporal relationships, and clinical and policy efforts should address minority stress at multiple levels.